ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the information minister said on Friday, days after the two Pakistani politicians traveled to the kingdom to perform Umrah.

Sharif, whose brother Shehbaz Sharif is the current prime minister of Pakistan, is a three-time premier, with his second term in government, from 1997 to 1999, ending in a military coup. Under an agreement facilitated by Saudi Arabia after the coup, Sharif was placed in exile and lived in Jeddah until 2007 when he returned to Pakistan ahead of elections the following year.

Sharif would go on to become PM for a third time in 2013, though that term was also cut short by the Supreme Court which disqualified him in a graft case.

“Quaid Muhammad Nawaz Sharif met with the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. Ms. Maryam Nawaz was also present in the meeting,” information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Twitter.

“The leaders discussed further development of Saudi-Pak brotherly relations and solutions to the problems faced by Pakistan. Quaid Nawaz Sharif’s expression of good wishes for the Saudi leadership.”

Aurangzeb did not say when Sharif met the crown prince or which Saudi city the meeting took place in. No statement on the meeting has been released by the Saudi side.

Sharif arrived in Saudi Arabia from London on April 11 to perform Umrah.

Sharif was found guilty in a corruption reference by an accountability court in Pakistan and sent to prison for 10 years in 2018. He began his prison term but was later released on temporary bail on medical grounds.

Sharif left Pakistan in November 2019 to seek medical treatment in London. He has not returned home since.